One Former Bank Official Changes Plea Judgment Against Defendants For Total Loss Of $10,445,000

Sat., Nov. 1, 1997

Associated Press

One of four former bank officials charged with a $10.4 million embezzlement plot against Mountain Bank of Whitefish is switching her plea to guilty in a negotiated deal.

Marlene I. Havens, 61, former senior vice president of the bank, was scheduled to go on trial with three other defendants Nov. 17 for her part in the alleged scheme.

Havens’ attorney, Eric F. Kaplan of Columbia Falls, filed notice Thursday of the plea agreement and her intent to change her plea.

Deputy U.S. District Attorney Carl Rostad would not comment on the agreement, but said the notice removes her from the trial, and that the trial of the other defendants may be delayed.

Havens, former bank president Werner “Buster” Schreiber and two other former employees, Lynn Foster and Kathleen Rommereim, pleaded innocent earlier to the indictments handed down by a federal grand jury on Aug. 20.

Schreiber, 50, is charged with conspiracy to commit several financial institution crimes, including embezzlement, bank fraud, money laundering and false bank entries, and with making false statements or entries to influence examiners of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.

Havens, Foster, 45, and Rommereim, 48, are charged with aiding and abetting Schreiber’s alleged embezzlement, and with bank fraud, conspiracy, making false bank entries, making false statements or entries to influence the FDIC examiners, and money laundering.

The alleged offenses took place between Sept. 1, 1990, and Oct. 25, 1996. The indictment seeks forfeiture of property in Arizona allegedly purchased with laundered money, and a judgment against the defendants for a total loss of $10,445,000.

Officials in U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy’s court in Missoula said no date had been set for Havens to appear on the plea agreement.

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